Thursday, February 23, 2006

Scotus, The U.N., South Dakota and Abortion

The Supreme Court has agreed to re-assess the law banning "Partial Birth Abortion" -- it should be very interesting to hear the decisions on this one with Alito and Roberts on the court.

"The Supreme Court set the stage Tuesday for a major ruling on abortion by agreeing to decide whether Congress can outlaw what opponents call "partial birth" abortions during the midterm of a pregnancy.

The fate of the federal law, the first nationwide ban on an abortion procedure, probably depends on President Bush's two new appointees: Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel Alito.

The court has been closely split on how strictly the government may regulate abortion, with former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor usually casting a deciding vote." (source)

Since, as far as I know, Planned Parenthood and NARAL are still refusing to present one case that would demonstrate MEDICAL NECESSITY for partial Birth late-term abortion, the SCOTUS may want to substitute that absent information with a 2005 report released by the United Nations (of all organizations).

A new study and subsequent report from the U.N. shows that countries which have no legal abortion access actually have LOWER mother mortality rates than countries with virtually no restriction on abortion.

"The comparison of four countries in the developed world published by the United Nations Populations Division, shows that Russia, with one of the highest rates of abortion in the world, has a maternal mortality rate of 67 deaths for every 100,000 births. The United States, with almost no legal restrictions on abortion but better health care, has a rate of 17 deaths for every 100,000 births.

Ireland, however, where abortion is illegal and with health care comparable to the US, has the lowest rate of the four countries with only 5 deaths for every 100,000 births. In Poland, long under communist rule, the rate is 13 deaths for every 100,000 births.

The study is timely for pro-life countries like Poland and Ireland, as well as those in Latin America struggling under heavy pressure from the UN and European Union to legalize abortion. "The World Mortality Report: 2005" lists infant and maternal mortality rates around the world and “is the first report of its kind” from the UN Population Division." (source)

How can that information be reconciled with the argument that abortion must be kept legal to protect women's lives?

Well, they need to decide quickly and if I were a she-male member of NARAL I'd start forging digging for those "medical necessity" documents --yesterday South Dakota's Senate PASSED A BILL (23-12) OUTLAWING ABORTION. This will, no doubt, end up going to the Supreme Court to challenge Roe (without Sandra Day O'Connor's dissent)...